Yes individual airbags are set off depending on where the vehicle detects an impact. It has to pick up 2 crash signals but they don't have to be at the same time. For instance if she's had a previous bump on a corner that upset one of the satellite sensors that would be one crash signal. If she then at any time in the future went up a kerb too hard or hit a big pot hole it could trigger another sensor which would then set off an airbag.

The X5 suffered this as people used to bang them up kerbs. The ABS ECU is by the handbrake so if they let the handbrake off to hard it would set the airbags off.

In short, she'll get nowhere with MINI. They can however tell what caused the system to go off.

Matt